


Jaunie Darko

by DoubleHeartSandwich



Category: Donnie Darko (2001), RWBY
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Angst, Canonical Character Death, Character Death, Crossover, F/M, High School, Horror, Mental Instability, Psychological Horror, Psychological Trauma, Time Travel, Tragic Romance
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2021-02-20
Updated: 2021-02-20
Packaged: 2021-03-16 23:00:28
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,200
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/29583420
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DoubleHeartSandwich/pseuds/DoubleHeartSandwich
Summary: Jaune Darko was an abnormal boy living a fairly normal life. He had everything a teenager could want; a nice family, a nice house, a decent school, good friends. But all that changes when he meets a woman in a decrepit bunny suit named Pyrrha that tells him the world will end in 28 days. Now, with the clock against him and the lives of everyone he knows and loves on the line, Jaune must face his fear of life, death, and lack of control to stop the end of the world and save everything he has come to hold dear.
Relationships: Jaune Arc/Weiss Schnee





	Jaunie Darko

OCTOBER 2ND, 1988  
The night is dark. The moon shines brightly above the small town of Middlesex. In a peculiar two story house, owned by the well-respected Darko family, a very unremarkable boy sleeps. His name is Jaune Darko, but many call him Jaunie. He dreams of nothing. He tosses slightly, snoring. In the other rooms of the house three of seven sisters, his mother, and his father sleep peacefully. It was just another night in the Darko household.  
Yet everything wasn’t as it seemed. Jaune Darko had a problem with sleepwalking. He would do it every now and again, and it would lead him to wake up somewhere random with no memory of how he got there.  
This is not unusual behavior for the teenaged boy, due to his mental illness. In fact, earlier that day, he had woken up in a field on the top of a cliff overlooking Middlesex called Carpathian Ridge.  
It had been early morning, probably around 8 or 9 AM when he had awoken to find himself in the fetal position laying in the grass fields near the road that lead to Middlesex. He groaned and rubbed his eyes before looking around. After a few moments, he decided to make his way home.  
Jaune was lucky that he had his bike with him. When he had gotten home nearly an hour later, he found his father, Noah Darko, outside using a leaf blower to fix up the lawn. His sister, Saphron Darko, walks out of the house and past their father, who blows air in her face as a joke before laughing at her angry retreat to her girlfriend’s car. Jaune nodded at his father before entering the home and walking to the kitchen. A small magnetic whiteboard on the family refrigerator had said:  
‘Where’s Jaunie?’  
His parents did that often when he could not be found. He didn’t care much for it. Katherine, Jaune’s mother, was probably the one who wrote it. She was unusually interested in his sleepwalking escapades, mainly because she didn’t know where he got off to when he had episodes.  
The day progressed as any Saturday would; Jaune drew, read, or watched TV with his father, while his sisters—Terra, Saphron, and Heather all went about their daily business, paying their brother no mind. His mother was at work until later in the day. He didn’t care much for this either. He was sixteen. He had better things to do than worry about his family.  
The time ticks by slowly, with Jaune filling every moment with something that kept him entertained. He continued to do that until the sun went down and night rolled around.  
A few hours before Jaune begins sleepwalking, at around 9 PM, he sits at the dinner table with his family. His mother had made spaghetti and greens with cornbread that night. It wasn’t bad, and Jaune was sure he was going to get up for seconds. Maybe thirds, if he was feeling adventurous. They all ate in relative silence for a few minutes before one of his sisters decided to bring up the topic of politics.  
Something Jaune had no particular interest in. “I’m voting for Ironwood,” Saphron says. Their father laughs bitterly.  
“Perhaps when you have kids of your own and they need braces but you can’t afford them because half of your husband’s paycheck goes to the federal government, you’ll regret that decision.”  
Saphron smiles. “Oh please. Husband? I’m dating a girl right now dad, I don’t think I’ll have a husband any time soon—and I don’t plan on squeezing one out until I’m thirty,” she says.  
Jaune rolls his eyes.  
“Yeah, ok. Do you still plan on working at Junior’s Club? Cause I heard that’s a great place to raise children.”  
Katherine shakes her head and spins some spaghetti on her fork.  
“No, a year of partying is enough. She’ll be going to Beacon this fall.”  
“Mom… I haven’t even been accepted yet.”  
Their mother smiles.  
“If you think James Ironwood is going is to provide for this country prior to when you decide to adopt a child, or as you put it; squeeze one out, then you are misinformed.”  
Heather, the youngest of Jaune’s sisters, being eight years old, looks up from her food at her mother.  
“When can I squeeze one out?” She asks innocently.  
“Not until like… eighth grade,” Jaune says. Katherine looks at him, indignation spread across her face.  
“Excuse me?”  
“Jaune, you’re such a dick,” Saphron glares at him, her eyes narrowed.  
“Woah Saphron, a bit hostile there. Maybe you should be the one in therapy. Then mom and dad can pay hundreds of dollars for someone to listen to your thoughts… so we don’t have to.”  
“Oh, right. Maybe you should tell mom and dad why you stopped taking your medication.” Saphron fires back, a smirk on her face.  
The family sits in a heavy, yet awkward silence. Their mother looks at Jaune.  
“You stopped taking your medication?” She asks, genuinely surprised.  
“When can I squeeze one out, mom?” Heather questions again.  
“You’re such a fuck ass!” Jaune yells, dropping his fork and pointing a finger at Saphron, who laughs.  
“When did you stop taking your medication?” Katherine prods.  
“Did you just call Saphron a fuck ass?” Terra asks, ending her silence.  
Their mother groans. “That’s enough.”  
Saphron stops laughing and looks at Jaune. “You can go suck a fuck.”  
“Oh, please tell me, Saphron, how exactly does one suck a fuck?” Jaune retorts.  
“Enough! We will NOT have that type of language at the table!” Katherine says, raising her voice and shooting threatening glares at the offenders.  
The family eats in silence for a few moments.  
“What’s a fuck ass?” Heather asks. Noah stifles back a laugh.  
The family finishes dinner and goes about their night.  
Jaune retreats to the bathroom upstairs, and looks into the mirror, staring himself in the eye, observing his features. Blonde. Dark blue eyes. Average build. Okay jawline. He frowns and reaches over to the wall cabinet, opening it and pulling out a small pill bottle. He uncaps it, shaking three pills in his hand, then caps the bottle and slams it back into the cabinet, closing it. He tosses the pills in his mouth and grabs a small cup filled with water that he brought from downstairs and downs the pills.  
After taking his pills, he leaves the bathroom and goes to his bedroom, where he begins reading “A Man With Two Souls,” by Ozma Grando, on his bed, waiting to get tired so he could finally get a bit of shut eye. His mother suddenly walks in and looks around, letting out a small sigh of exasperation.  
Jaune’s room was an absolute mess. Just how he liked it. She begins to pick up various items off the floor.  
“Get out of my room,” he mutters, without looking away from his book.  
His mother looks at him for a moment before turning around and walking to the door. Before she left, however, she stopped at the doorframe and looked back at him, worry etched across her face.  
“I wish I knew where you went at night, Jaunie… did you… did you toilet paper the Adel’s house?”  
Jaune looks away from his book and glares at the woman.  
“I stopped rolling houses in the sixth grade. Get out of my room.”  
“You know… it would be nice to look at you sometimes… and see my son. I don’t recognize this person today,” Katherine says, a sad smile on her face.  
Jaune grimaces. “Then maybe you should take the goddamn pills!” Jaune reaches over to the lamp next to his bed and turns off the light, rolling to his side and covering himself with his blanket.  
His mother sighs and closes the door, walking away. Jaune bitterly sits up and stares at the spot his mother used to occupy.  
“Bitch.”  
He was sure she heard that. He hoped she did.  
He went to sleep, blissfully unaware of what his sleepwalking would get him into that night…  
“Wake… up… Jaunie.” A strange, distorted voice calls.  
The boy in question sits up in his bed sluggishly. Who was that voice coming from? He looks to his alarm clock in confusion. It’s 1 AM. He gets up from his bed, and walks to his door, leaving his room. He walks into the hallway, and then down the stairs. He finds his way into the kitchen and stops at the whiteboard magnetized to the refrigerator, grabbing the marker on it and walking out of the kitchen. He walks through the living room and towards the front door.  
Without any regard for quietness, he opens the front door and leaves, sleepwalking his way down to the road in front of his house. He continues walking, passing through the neighborhood in a daze, heading to no particular place. Or so he thought.  
Past the houses of people he knew—Lie Ren, Nora Valkyrie, Blake Belladonna, and many others—Jaune trekked, the night moon and his own unconscious mind guiding him. He walked in the middle of the street, and to his great luck, there were no cars coming this late at night. Or was it early in the morning?  
He didn’t know, he wasn’t exactly in his proper thinking mind, instead he was obeying whatever is subconscious was influencing him to do, whether he realized it or not. Which he didn’t of course. That was one of the well-known effects of sleepwalking; the absence of the memory of the act. Because one technically isn’t truly conscious during this endeavor, they cannot remember the occurrences that take place while they are in a sleepwalking state. Which is why Jaune always found himself questioning how exactly he ends up in the places he does.  
Of course he wished that he could be normal and not have these issues, but maybe being able to remember would help him cope with a situation far beyond his control.  
Eventually Jaune is no longer in the neighborhood, instead, he’s at a golf course on the outskirts of the area. A popular place for his father to go and play golf with his friends and associates. He stares into the darkness.  
“Helluva night for a walk, huh Jaunie?” There. That voice again. It’s distorted, like it’s been put through some sort of filter, or a microphone attached to a faulty sound system. Like its underwater. It’s omnipresent and deep, yet playful and light. It’s a woman’s voice.  
Jaune continues staring into the darkness, confused.  
“Tonight is a very special night, Jaunie.”  
“What?” Jaune questions.  
“I’ve been watching you…” The voice pauses. Jaune looks around, trying to find the source. He begins to panic slightly when he finally sees who the voice is coming from. Or rather, what the voice is coming from.  
“Do you believe in God, Jaunie?”  
The blonde boy doesn’t answer, gripping his stomach and breathing heavily.  
“God loves his children, Jaunie. God loves you.”  
Standing by one of the holes, Jaune sees a person in a faded, grungy, and surreal grey and blue rabbit costume, a haunting humanoid-rabbit skull mask covering their face, looming in the shadows. The bulbous eyes on the mask seem to stare into Jaune as he grips his stomach tighter, a wave of nausea overcoming him.  
“My name is Pyrrha.”  
The rabbit tilts her head to the side slightly.  
“I want you to follow me.”  
Jaune grimaces. “Why?”  
“I’m here to save you. The world… is coming to an end, Jaunie.”  
Jaune says nothing, stumbling a bit as his nausea increases.  
“Look up at the sky, Jaunie.”  
The teenaged boy obeys, looking up into the night sky, seeing the moon shining brilliantly.  
“28 days… 6 hours… 42 minutes… 12 seconds. That is when the world will end.”  
Jaune looks at the rabbit in confusion, not understanding anything he was being told.  
Unbeknownst to him, however, is that while he was away from home, a gigantic metal object crashes into his room through the roof, effectively destroying half of it, including his bed, which shakes the entire house, waking up the whole family. Jaune, had he been in the house, would have died. But he wasn’t there. No, he was at the golf course, clutching his stomach and falling over onto the low trimmed grass. He groans, and lays flat on his back before passing out.  
××××  
Two men, Dr. Fisher and Arthur Watts are both riding in a golf cart. They’re going down to the seventh hole to continue their game. It was a beautiful morning, and the weather was nice. So far the days had been kind to both men, and they felt like they needed to celebrate as men do with a game of golf.  
They have to stop the cart, however, when they see a peculiar blockage in the way of the seventh hole. Dr. Fisher, who was driving the cart, gets out, followed by Watts. They both approach the obstacle, confusion and a slight worry painted across their minds.  
“Jaune Darko?” Dr. Fisher questions.  
“What… what’s goin’ on here?” He sputters. Jaune opens his eyes and looks up at the two men.  
“Who is this?” Watts asks Fisher.  
“It’s Noah Darko’s kid.”  
Jaune shakes his head and gets up, wiping grass off of his clothes before noticing something on his arm.  
28:6:42:12 is written in black marker. Jaune stares at the numbers in confusion, a pang of worry building up in his gut.  
Dr. Fisher looks to Watts.  
“I’m sorry about this Watts… he’s… he’s some kid from the neighborhood.”  
Fisher turns his attention back to Jaune, who was still staring at his arm.  
“Eh, Jaune?”  
Jaune looks up to the man.  
“Try to stay off the greens tonight, will you?”  
Jaune stares at Fisher, before nodding awkwardly.  
“S-sorry Dr. Fisher. Won’t happen again,” he says as he quickly turns away from the two men and stumbles his way back towards his house.  
How the hell had he ended up at the golf course? Why did his sleep walking always have to throw him into situations he didn’t understand, and then cause him more grief than he needed in a single sitting? It seems like things couldn’t be simple for Jaune, no matter what he did. If his sleep walking didn’t get him in trouble, then his own erratic behavior would. He had done a lot of dumb things that ended up causing him to go to juvenile hall and made it so he couldn’t drive until he was 21. If he wasn’t more careful he would end up in the same spot.  
Not like he cared that much, though. With sleepwalking, at least he knew that he wouldn’t do anything crazier than walk, or in this case, write a bunch of meaningless numbers on his arm. That was manageable, even if his mother wouldn’t stop riding his ass about it.  
Jaune made his way back into the cul-de-sac, and was surprised to see cop cars racing past him to some unknown destination.  
That was odd. Middlesex cops were never up this early. That would have to mean they had crime to deal with, but they didn’t. It was Middlesex. Crime was commonplace but not in the sense of where people were getting robbed or murders were happening. It was more like petty thievery or some vandalism here and there. It was a pretty peaceful place compared to other parts of Vale, and that was owed mostly to the tight knit community. Everyone knew everyone. You’d be hard pressed to find a person no one knew. Unless they had just moved into the area of course, but even then, everyone would know them within a month. Maybe less. You couldn’t really commit a crime without being caught in a half a second, so no one really tried anything. Of course you have your outliers, but that was with every community. You couldn’t escape that fact. It was a part of human nature.  
Jaune rubbed his temples as he walked down the sidewalk towards his house. In the distance he could see where the police cruisers were stopping. He could also see a few firetrucks, a news van, and a crane. He couldn’t see what the crane was lifting, he was too far away. There was a crowd of people watching the scene unfold. Nosy neighbors. Textbook Middlesex right there. No one could mind their own business. Jaune was a part of that no one. He walks over to the scene, but finds that it isn’t some random house, it’s his house.  
The house is swarming with police, firemen, and news reporters, with his family standing in front of the abode watching as the caterpillar crane lifted a giant plane engine from out of a hole in the roof. Jaune stares at it for a moment before furrowing his brow and moving towards his home. He weaves his way through the crowd of neighbors, who all gossip about the event like no tomorrow.  
“That’s Darko’s house!” Someone says.  
“What happened?” A woman asks.  
“Plane engine crashed into the roof. No one was hurt, thankfully, but it’s the weirdest thing in the world! So far, there’s been no report of a plane crashing. Where’d it come from?” A man answers.  
Donnie grunts as he breaks through the crowd, walking to his house. Two police officers, standing by a barrier, attempt to stop Jaune. The blond however only slows down a small amount when one of the officers holds up a hand.  
“This area is off limits to the public, sir—”  
“This is my house.” Jaune says as the officer steps in front of him.  
“Son—”  
“THIS IS MY HOUSE!” Jaune says hotly, pushing past the officer and walking over to his family.  
They all look visibly relieved when they see the blonde teenager walk over to them. His mother walks up to him and gives him a hug. Jaune smiles and hugs her back. When they break the hug Jaune looks up to the plane engine, a strange feeling forming inside of him.  
“What happened?” He asks, looking away from the large metal object and back to his mother.  
“It fell in your room.”  
Jaune was surprised to hear this, and was a tiny bit shaken up by the fact that he could have died if he hadn’t been sleepwalking again. The feeling didn’t stay long though, as he and his family were going to a hotel room that the FAA and Vale Emergency Response Services had paid for. They would be staying there while repairs were made to the house, and from what little Jaune had heard, apparently it was all going to be free.  
At least he could wash those numbers off of his arm now.  
His parents were nowhere near broke, as they had spent a lot of time carefully budgeting and planning out how they would spend money since they had gotten married, but fixing a house as big as theirs after an event like this would have crippled them. He may be indifferent to a lot of things, but even Jaune knew that a financial issue like that would be ruinous for everyone involved. Or at least, that's what he thought. He didn't really know how much money his folks had.  
While that was all well and good, there was a problem that stood out from everything that had happened that day. He would now have to sleep on the floor because there were only two beds and he was unfortunate enough to have two parents and three sisters. He would have to deal with being on the floor for a while until the house was fixed, which he didn’t like in the slightest, but there was nothing he could do about it other than bitch and moan. Which he did.  
“So you’re saying I have to sleep on the floor? That’s fucking gay, dad.” Jaune says to his father while they walk towards the hotel room.  
They had stepped out to grab some snacks from the vending machine. Jaune got some chips for himself, and his father got miscellaneous items for everyone else. They were going to get take out later on towards the evening, but for now they would deal with snacks. It was only 5:45 PM, so there was no real need to rush and grab dinner now, and then have everyone be hungry a few hours later.  
“Look, Jaune, I don’t make the rules, alright? A man has got to do what he can for a woman, which means that if there isn’t enough space for him to sleep because his sisters need a bed, then he has to take the floor,” Noah says, glancing over to Jaune, who lifted an eyebrow.  
“Okay, but a man also has to do what he can to help his kids, right?”  
“Right.”  
“So why do you get to sleep on a bed but I don’t?” Jaune asks, staring at his father, a mocking gaze his eyes. Noah smiles.  
“Are you trying to sleep with my wife?”  
Jaune sputters and goes wide-eyed, shaking his head.  
“God no! Why would I—that’s fucking disgusting dad!”  
“You walked into that one, Jaune.”  
They reach their room, and Noah uses the room key to unlock the door. They step inside and see the women of the family huddled around the TV, with Saphron sitting on one of the beds next to Katherine, and Terra and Heather sitting on the floor.  
“Where did the plane go?” Terra asks, her fifteen year old mind not understanding the situation.  
Her mother shrugs.  
“They don’t know, they’re still looking. So far they’ve found nothing though… it’s like the engine just appeared out of thin air.”  
“How is that even possible? Stuff doesn’t just magically appear and fall from the sky!” Saphron argues.  
Katherine looks to the television.  
“That’s how things should be, Saphron, but this? It’s just… off. I don’t know how, but it is.”  
“Well, all I know is that Jaune has to sleep on the floor now, like a loser,” Terra says, sticking her tongue out at the boy, who promptly flips her the bird.  
“When you fall asleep tonight, I’m gonna fart in your face.”  
“Mom, Jaunie’s being gross!”  
Katherine groans. “Not here, not now.”  
Everyone begins to situate themselves, with Jaune leaning against a wall staring off at the TV, not paying attention to anything around him. He just wanted to know what those numbers on his arm had meant. He was lucky enough to wash them off without his parents or his sisters noticing, but his mind had retained the numbers, aching to know their meaning. Maybe he would find out soon.  
At 8:15 PM Jaune and his father leave the hotel and get take out from a local pizza parlor. They get back twenty minutes later, and the family eats and converses about what had happened to the house and how strange it was. The night eventually reached its end, with everyone going to bed, save for their mother and father, who had stepped outside for a moment, Jaune going to the floor with a pillow and a blanket.  
He stares up at the ceiling, the strange numbers that were on his arm still playing back and forth in his mind.  
××××  
Outside of the hotel building, Katherine and Noah stand by the entrance. Katherine has a half smoked cigarette in her hand, while her husband sipped from a bottle of beer.  
“Can’t we sue whatever airline this thing came from for some money?” He asks.  
“We could have, but from what the FAA agents told me on the phone, no airline is claiming the engine,” Katherine responds.  
“So basically we’re stuck in this shit hole until the FAA and the VERS figure out who’s going to fix my roof and Jaune’s room? Fuck that, we’re taking money out of savings. We can afford that right?” Noah questions. He already knew the answer, but he wanted the reassurance his wife would give him.  
“Yeah, we do. Roof repairs and fixing up our son’s room should only cost a couple grand at most. We still have a little over a two hundred thousand saved up,” the woman says, taking a drag from her cigarette.  
Noah nods in approval. “I’ll start calling up some people. I know a few guys in construction that would love a job like this… hey, you remember Frankie Feedler?”  
Katherine looks at him, confused.  
“From high school? Yes. Why?”  
“He was a year ahead of us… and he… you know? He died. On the way to prom. The kid was doomed,” He stated, a somber quiet enveloping the couple. Katherine looks up at the night sky, her eyes watery.  
“Jesus Christ. That could have been Jaune. Our Jaunie…” She whispers, tears streaming down her face. Noah embraces his wife with his free arm while taking a drink from his beer.  
“He dodged his bullet, Kathy. He dodged it. That’s my boy.”  
The door to the hotel suddenly opens, revealing Terra, who looked positively livid.  
“Mom, Jaunie farted in my face!”

28 days remain.


End file.
